McSherrystown officials postpone parking amendment

McSherrystown officials have again tabled adoption of an ordinance amendment to add parking on South Third Street, and the closure of a nearby borough-owned parking area was blamed as the main predecessor for the request for additional street parking.

At their July 23 meeting, Councilman Joseph VonSas, asked if the previous council (in 2006) had made suggestions for residents to park on borough property when the "no-parking" area was expanded on South Third Street. VonSas asked for meeting minutes to be reviewed to make sure that was not the case.

A few months ago a small borough-owned parking lot on Park Drive Alley was removed after the borough received numerous complaints about private vehicles parked there being continually hit by balls from the adjacent borough owned softball field. The eight-space lot was originally paved for parking for recreation users, said borough supervisor Scott Cook, but area residents soon began using it.

Due to the complaints, said Cook, council approved removing all the blacktop on the tract to eliminate all parking there.

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At a recent borough meeting, Center Street resident Richard Groft suggested that the sports field itself be re-evaluated and possibly restricted from softball games. Groft noted that the town's senior/community center which is adjacent to the field needed to have a high screened fence to keep people from getting hit on the head by softballs. It was later built. Groft said the field in question could be better suited for pee-wee and T-Ball players.

"We have no plans to discuss taking that field away from softball," said Stephen Weaver, chairman of the recreation committee.

The closing of the Park Drive Alley parking lot was what precipitated the proposed parking issue on South Third Street, said Cook. Earlier this year John Powers, 107 S. Third St., complained to the borough about his car being hit by many softballs at the Park Drive parking lot. Powers said he had asked council to put a fence up on the field to protect the cars and did not expect the lot to be closed. After that parking lot was removed by the borough, said Powers, he then requested more parking space on South Third Street.

Mayor Anthony Weaver said he has been adamantly opposed to adding parking in that area.

Council initially began looking at options to correct the line-of-sight problems for drivers pulling out of South Street as early as 1986, said Mayor Weaver, and adopted the no-parking area on South Third Street in 2006 after it was studied both by PennDOT and former police chief Michael Vial.

"Between 1996 and 2006 there were 19 reportable accidents at the intersection. Most (drivers at fault) reported a 'blind spot'," said Weaver. "From 2006 until today and after the changes were made only three reportable accidents have occurred."

Two councilmen, David Bolton and Douglas Duvall, both argued that adding one additional parking spot on South Third Street should not make the intersection more dangerous. They both theorized that area has less traffic since the fire department moved out of their old South Third Street/Main Street quarters a few years ago.

That theory is faulty, said Weaver, as the traffic actually has gotten much heavier due to more development and more trucks going through the area.

Weaver said that if council goes forward with adopting the ordinance he plans to use his power as mayor to veto it. It would then take a two-third vote of council to cancel that veto, said Cook. After more review the issue will be brought back to the next council meeting on Aug. 13.